Munifie epitomized rural development - Adjaho

Accra, July 21, GNA - Parliament on Friday paid tribute to the memory of Mr Ameyaw Akumfi Munufie, an ace politician. Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, Deputy Minority Leader, in a statement said Mr Munufie was so effective when he as a Minister of Rural Development in the Second Repu blic that his name became synonymous with rural development.

"Anything connected with the rural sector or any behaviour typifying rural lives was referred to as 'Munufic', especially among students of tertiary institutions."

Mr Doe Adjaho said during his tenure, Mr Munufie promoted the philosophy of rural development through a Regional Decentralised Approach and Increased Agricultural Production.

He said under the programme, feeder roads were constructed, extension services were expanded and fertilizer use increased alongside an improved mechanisation and agricultural credit services while co-operative organization services in the rural areas were strengthened. Mr Doe Adjaho said as a Lawyer and Politician, Mr Munufie refused to join the Ghana Bar Association's boycott of the Consultative Assembly, which deliberated on the 1992 Fourth Republic Constitution, arguing that the best way of ending unconstitutional governance was to participate in the process leading to its termination.

"He was, therefore, a very active member of the Consultative Assembly that gave birth to the present Constitution." Mr Munufie was again in the thick of things throwing his weight behind Former President Jerry John Rawlings, who later became President under the National Democratic Congress (NDC) after the ban on party politics was lifted in 1992.

Mr Munufie was elected together with Alhaji Issifu Ali as joint Chairmen at the Party's congress in 1992 and they successfully held their positions until they left office in 2002.

Mr Doe Adjaho said Mr Munufie, who was later appointed Ghana's Ambassador to La Cote d'Ivoire, continued to be a very active member of the Ministerial Advisory Board of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, and took part in shaping the direction of the decentralization programme as it existed until today.

Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the Majority Chief Whip, in a contribution said the late Mr Munufie, who served as Minister in the Progress Party Government, forerunner of the ruling News Patriotic Party (NPP) and later in the current opposition NDC had a unique role in reconciling the two dominant political parties.

"He was a professional, who contributed to advance the course of our young democracy," Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said. Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, First Minority Deputy Chief Whip, said the late Munufie, who was nicknamed "Sane Eba" (There is trouble), was regular and punctual at party meetings and was a powerful platform speaker.

Born in December 1929 into the Royal Munufie Family of the Techiman State in the Brong Ahafo Region, Mr Munufie first name was Kwadwo Ofori Munufie.

He was the first Techiman citizen to be awarded a State scholarship to study overseas, and this he did by studying Taxation in the UK in 1950. He returned to Ghana in 1953 and worked for some time with the then Income Tax Department in Kumasi.

At this time, he took an active interest in politics and together with the Techimanhene, Nana Akumfi Ameyaw III, led the agitation of the Bono Kyempim Movement, culminating in the famous Achimota Conference in 1955.

One of the activists in this struggle was the late Dormaahene, Nana Agyeman Badu, and the outcome of their struggles was the creation of the Brong Ahafo Region in 1959.

It was at this time that the Techimanhene bestowed his own stool title Ameyaw Akumfi on Mr Munufie, which subsequently became his name replacing the name given him at birth: Kwadwo Ofori.